Borrowing money is a serious responsibility no matter what type of loan you choose. The days of walking into your neighborhood bank or credit union and quickly and easily getting a personal loan are pretty much over.

Since the financial meltdown began in late 2007, traditional lenders such as banks and credit unions have severely tightened their lending requirements making it much more difficult for many consumers to qualify for a loan. Homeowners have also seen the value of their homes greatly decrease since the housing market collapsed a few years ago- so much so that home equity loans are almost non-existent in today’s financial market.

However, people still have financial needs and loans are still available from places like http://www.smartfinancialproducts.co.uk. If you have made the decision to apply for a loan, here are some basic facts which you should know.

There are two different types of loans generally offered to consumers: securedand unsecured. A secured loan is a loan which requires some form of collateral from the borrower. For example, this could be your home or your car. An unsecured loan does not require any type of collateral and therefore carries a greater risk for the lender.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Here are some advantages of secured loans:

Your interest rate (APR) will generally be lower and more affordable than with an unsecured loan.

Payments are normally spread out over a longer period of time giving you more flexibility with repayment of the loan.

You can usually borrow larger amounts of money compared to an unsecured loan.

You may be able to get a secured loan with a less-than-perfect credit history. Since you have to provide collateral for a secured loan, lenders will be assured that they will get their money back even if you default on the loan.

Some disadvantages of secured loans are:

You are required to pledge specific assets as collateral for the loan.

If you are unable to make the regular payments and/or default on the loan, the lender has the right to repossess your pledged assets to recover the money which is owed.

Repayment periods are generally longer than with an unsecured loan meaning you are in debt for a longer time.

The following are advantages of an unsecured loan:

You can normally qualify for an unsecured loan without having substantial assets.

Since there is no collateral required, you do not risk losing any personal property such as a home or car.

Unsecured loans are a better option for consumers who only need to borrow a small amount.

These are some disadvantages of an unsecured loan:

The repayment period is usually shorter than with a secured loan resulting in higher payment amounts.

Since there is no collateral required, lenders normally charge higher interest rates for unsecured loans.

Qualifying for an unsecured loan is generally more difficult.

Ultimately, it is your decision on what type of loan to choose. You should always give careful consideration to your personal circumstances when deciding to take on new debt and always borrow the least amount of money possible.

The most common way to trade on commodities is through a futures contract, which is an agreement to buy or sell a specific amount of a commodity at a fixed sum at a pre-determined point in the future. With some commodities, like gold and silver, it’s possible to trade a daily cash market (Rolling Daily) or http://satoshi.ltd but for the bulk of tradeable commodities we are operating in the futures market.

On the ETX Capital TraderPro platform you will find a list of all the commodities you can trade on. Usually there are futures contracts for the next one or two months, with an expiry day (when the contract is settled).

Trading on commodities with http://satoshi.ltd is similar to trading on equities or indices in that you are choosing whether you think the price will rise or fall. The only difference for the majority of traders is the time element. Most traders of equities and indices trade the rolling daily price and simply rollover their position until they exit the trade. commodities trading the futures contracts expire and so you need to beware being closed out of a contract before you intended.

Buyers and sellers can use commodity futures contracts to lock in the purchase of sale prices weeks, months or years in advance. For example, assume that a farmer is expecting to produce 1,000,000 bushels of soybeans in the next 12 months. Typically, soybean futures contracts include the quantity of 5,000 bushels. If the farmer’s break-even point on a bushel of soybeans is $10 per bushel and he sees that one-year futures contracts for soybeans are currently priced at $15 per bushel, it might be wise for him to lock in the $15 sales price per bushel by selling enough one-year soybean contracts to cover his harvest. In this example, that is (1,000,000 / 5,000 = 200 contracts).

One year later, regardless of price, the farmer delivers the 1,000,000 bushels and receives $15 x 200 x 5000, or $15,000,000. This price is locked in. But unless soybeans are priced at $15 per bushel in the spot market that day, the farmer has either received less than he could have or more. If soybean were priced at $13 per bushel, the farmer receives a $2 per bushel benefit from hedging, or $2,000,000. Likewise, if the beans were priced at $17 per bushels, the farmer misses out on an additional $2 per bushel profit.

We planned to write a blog about the revised travel ban Executive Order as soon as it came out. That the revised order was delayed for several weeks until March 6 highlights the uncertainty we face in 2017 with requiring immigration solicitors in London . Below we try to answer various questions we regularly receive about immigration issues.

Is domestic airplane travel OK? This may sound like a simple question for muslim lawyer companies, but recent events suggest more caution may be wise. For example, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents recently met a plane landing at JFK Airport in New York City, and asked everyone about their immigration status. The agents were looking for someone who had an old deportation order, but it is possible that anyone without evidence of status could have faced delays. This is a good time to remind ourselves that the law requires anyone who is not a U.S. citizen to carry evidence of status at all times and your Wandsworth based solicitors should confirm it. Try to make it easy for a government officer.

Isn’t that overreacting based on one incident? Maybe, but the bigger picture is that immigration enforcement agents have more discretion and wider operating room than before. Two memos issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on February 20 allow for “expedited removal,” which is a fast track process that skips a hearing with an immigration judge. Expedited removal now can apply to anyone who entered the country within the past 2 years (used to be 2 weeks), and anywhere in the United States (used to be within 100 miles of the border). Expedited removal happens quickly, sometimes within a matter of days. Having a copy of a document showing status and that you have been in the United States more than two years could help avoid questioning and expedited removal.

How about electronic devices? Can those be searched at the airport or border? The simple answer is “yes,” and this is happening more often. We recommend that private information, such as a doctor with patient information, should be encrypted. According to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, CBP officers may search laptops, cell phones, or other electronic devices. CBP may not select someone for a personal search or secondary inspection based on religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity, or political beliefs. U.S. citizens may also be questioned and have their devices seized for refusal to provide passwords or unlock devices, but cannot be prevented from entering the United States. Noncitizens may, however, be denied entry. Adding to the uncertainty about how this will play out is a section in one of the January Executive Orders that directs federal government agencies to make sure they “exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents” from Privacy Act protections concerning personal information.

What does this mean for people from the six countries covered by the new travel ban? Will the court battle still continue? The new order clarifies that green card holders and Iraqis are NOT affected by the visa ban, and that people who had visas revoked or cancelled by the first order may be able to get a travel letter to return. The new order takes effect March 16, 2017, and lasts for 90 days. People with valid visas stamps in their passports can still use them, but new visa stamps will not be issued with very limited discretionary exceptions. The Visa Interview Waiver program is suspended for all countries, and the order states that DHS may add countries to the list after further review. People who are citizens of the six countries can still face additional questioning when they enter the United States as part of a general pattern of enhanced vetting. Travel for citizens of the six countries remains a calculated risk.